Housing delivery test action plan

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) introduced the Housing Delivery Test (HDT) in 2018. The HDT holds us and other stakeholders accountable for their role in ensuring new homes are delivered.

The HDT assesses the number of homes built in local authority areas over the previous three years. It also compares these against local housing requirements. MHCLG published the HDT 2018 results on 19 February 2019. The council scored only 50%, with an under-delivery of 50% of local housing requirements in the borough over the last three years.

As the Local Planning Authority the council failed to meet delivery targets. The council now need to take appropriate action to address under-delivery and prepare an action plan.

MHCLG produce the HDT results annually and depending on the next results (expected late 2019), may need further action taken by the Council.

Gateshead Housing Delivery Test Action Plan

The Council has produced a Housing Delivery Test Action Plan [18.24MB] (HDTAP). The purpose of the plan is:to identify key issues for the under-delivery of new housing in the borough outline what actions will be taken to increase and maintain delivery levels.

The Plan outlines a number of actions to increase housing delivery ensuring that this is maintained over the longer term. Actions include increasing :

the number of homes built directly by the Council.

the number of homes built by the Gateshead Regeneration Partnership.

the diversity of homes built in the borough. For example by encouraging more small and medium sized firms (SMEs) to build.